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Izzy’s Fire

Author: Nancy Wright Beasley

Bravery was rare during the Holocaust in Lithuania, as many people tried to keep their head down and simply survive. However, the bravery of one small Catholic family saved thirteen Jews.

Chapter 1 opens in the year 1943 in the Kovno Ghetto with Edna Ipson, her son, and her husband escaping in the middle of the night. The tension is strong, and the details are vivid. Edna climbs up on a wagon, and once seated, she regrets how she climbed up, worried that she may have lost a button from her sweater. It is too dark to see, but she slides her hand along her sweater’s edge, counting the buttons. One . . . two . . . three . . . four . . . five. All there!

The reader is quickly captivated by this family to discover if they survive their escape. However, the next few chapters take the reader back in time, leaving the reader to continue wondering and unable to put the book down. Several chapters describe Edna’s life in Lithuania before the Nazis entered. Their simple but happy life was filled with family, friends, and love until 1941. Their life even included a baby daughter, leading the reader to wonder where this baby was during the escape from Kovno Ghetto.

Edna was given the nickname “Izzy’s Fire” when she was young and her husband’s sisters were trying to convince their mother to allow Edna and Izzy to marry. She was called “Simchah Fire,” everlasting flame or unquenchable fire. Izzy’s parents had wanted him to marry a wealthy woman so he could rise in society.

Nancy Wright Beasley is a gifted writer. She is able to keep the information accurate while entertaining the reader at the same time. Beasley brings the characters to life and helps the reader relive the events through the eyes of Edna. She showcases the tensions between family members who make different decisions and shares how families are ripped apart emotionally and physically.

As of 2015, five of the thirteen Jews that were saved were still living. Beasley interviewed survivors and read memoirs, which led her on a seven-year journey of Edna Ipson. This enlightening and empowering book was nominated for a People’s Choice Awards in 2006.

To the Moon and Back to Me

Author: Christine Hassing

The physical loss of a loved one is always hard, and it takes time to accept and then process the end of a relationship and then the beginning of a life without the loved one. And even then, when loss comes again in life, feelings from a previous loss can resurface, and one is then forced to try to cope with both losses. This is what happened to the author Christine Hassing.

In To the Moon and Back to Me, Hassing writes in short journal entries as she processes the loss of her four-legged running partner Too. To the author, this partner was more than a dog; it was the member who completed their family.

“In my dream, I handed you to your daddy, our family of three, you as our baby girl, to make us better people, to make us complete. . . . The child I didn’t bring into the world in you I would find.”

When reading along, though the journal entries speak directly of images of Roo, Hassing’s first loss are hinted at in the pages.

The journal entries, which begin with dates to help the reader follow along, go back and forth from the present to memories — the present trying to cope with the current loss of Roo and the memories thinking about the encouragement Roo provided when running alongside.

Written in the first person to Roo, Hassing describes well the feelings of loss that she experiences over one year. The reader walks alongside the author as she processes her feelings, slowly comes to acceptance, and even finds a way to move on.

This book is a positive read for anyone struggling with a loss. It can help the reader process their emotions and grow, while learning to live when the circumstances have changed.

Even Climate Change Can’t Stop Love and Murder

Author: A.E.S. O’Neill

As Ginger and Alby cross the United States to relocate to their new witness protection home in Arizona, their search for love is marred by violent interludes with insurrectionists, white supremacists, and jihadists. But those are not enough antagonists for this author! The setting is an antagonist as well with the fury of climate chaos — storms beyond measure that bring about death and destruction.

Similar to the first book in this series, A.E.S. O’Neill writes an action-packed novel that takes place in a short time span, allowing a lot to happen in a single day.

Chapter 1, the hook for the novel, is written from the perspective of Ginger. The reader reads her thoughts on running away, on the Handlers managing Alby’s witness protection, and on Alby – as Ginger continues to analyze him out of the corner of her eye. This is particularly notable for a male author to successfully write from a female perspective, and to do so in the novel’s hook.

Written in the third person, this book seamlessly jumps to various characters. Jagger, the man hunting down Alby but currently too injured to complete the job, reminisces on his horrible upbringing. Ginger frequently thinks about what she is running away from, an overbearing mother who controls her acting career as well as much of her life. Alby has minimal thoughts about the present. He thinks about Ginger’s quirks and his need for a drink, but he does not think much about the past or the future – a characteristic emphasizing that Alby has been worn down by the past and doesn’t see himself as having much of a future.

Even Climate Change Can’t Stop Love and Murder, Volume 2: Paying the Price is the second novel of this romance thriller series and offers a uniquely American vision of love and murder, trauma and healing. However, this book could easily be read as a standalone novel. O’Neill provides the necessary information about the relationship between Ginger and Alby, for example, to make it so, including that Ginger is running away with a man she hardly knows who is on the run.

Traveling with Alby, Ginger shares information about her life with him, but not the dark secrets of her childhood, which explain so much of her strong, determined character. All the threads of the old life and new culminate at Tuzigoot National Monument, where Ginger and Alby once again face death.

Volume 1 opens in a high-action scene, whereas volume 2 opens with character development of Ginger and her relationship with Alby. While the high-impact scenes could have been filled with more emotion and intensity, the author clearly develops scenes and characters, and his overall story telling is outstanding. This is an excellent read, and one we greatly recommend.